Hope is a concept that has been applied and investigated by many disciplines, including philosophy, theology, anthropology, psychology, psychiatry, sociology, and nursing. Significantly, there is no concept analysis of hope in relation to mental health recovery where recovery is defined as the fulfilment of a meaningful life and a positive sense of identity founded on hope and self-determination. Long before the advent of the recovery approach to care, Menninger, a psychiatrist, emphasized the pragmatic relational capacity of the hope of health care professionals to increase the hope of others. However, it was not until the 1970s onward that the influence of nursing on the development of hope theory became significant. Hope is a dynamic developmental personality trait which enables the possible through cognitive goal-directed processes of pathways and agency, where levels are influenced through attribution of meaning and interrelational processes.

This chapter focuses on frameworks useful for understanding an individual’s health status and appreciating a wide range of factors that contribute to health and illness. Nursing is one of the many professions that conduct research, theorize, and use concepts related to health and illness. The frameworks presented here, although frequently used by nurses, have been influenced by fields of study as diverse as physics, humanistic psychology, and physiology. In theory development, the integration of knowledge from diverse fields is important for capturing the complex aspects of health and illness. In research and clinical practice, the nurse needs to consider the individual’s environment and the barriers and facilitators to achieve health and take healthy actions. The frameworks in this chapter provide an understanding of the concepts of health and illness and provide guidance and structure needed for engaging in healthy actions and interventions.

This chapter summarizes the theory of moderated guiding, discusses the methodological decisions that influenced the research process, and highlights significant issues. It provides a summary of key points a researcher may wish to consider when designing a study. The main concern of nurses in end-of-life care was different expectations. This was managed using the process of moderated guiding, which included the sub-processes of checking out, which referred to informational understanding and potential alternatives; involving that comprised conversational maneuvering and negotiating choices; and supporting, which included deliberating and safeguarding. In the theory of moderated guiding, participants were chosen because they could talk about nursing practice in end-of-life care. The research began with interviewing nurses in hospices, aged care facilities, and hospitals. The critical issue is the researcher’s willingness to learn from experience and his or her commitment to produce a scholarly piece of work.

This chapter explains the self-described life story of an older woman with a diagnosis of HIV in order to understand the psychosocial factors related to successful management of HIV in the long term. The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) estimates that 15” of the new cases of HIV and 24” of persons living with HIV are adults who are 50 years old. Themes and issues identified may guide interventions across life span for women aging with HIV or any chronic illness. Even in spite of sexual abuse or multiple abuses, high resilience predicted high highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) medication adherence. Chambers pointed out that qualitative literature could explore the lived experiences of older people living with HIV (PLWH), especially in areas of physical health, antiretroviral therapy (ART) adherence, and sexual health.

This chapter describes the middle range theory of unpleasant symptoms (TOUS): its components, the process by which it was developed, examples and theoretical implications of its application in nursing research and practice, and plans for future development. Notably, it is applicable to multiple symptoms that can occur alone or together in conjunction with many different illnesses, and it highlights their multidimensionality. The TOUS has three major concepts: the symptom(s), influencing factors, and performance outcomes. The chapter portrays the overall structure of the TOUS, which asserts the three related categories of factors (physiologic, psychologic, and situational) that influence predisposition to and the manifestation of a given symptom or multiple symptoms and the nature of the symptom experience. The TOUS, which was grounded in clinical research and practice, is a middle range theory that is valuable as a basis for additional research and as a guide to nursing practice.

This chapter helps the reader understand some different strategies that organizations can complete to help foster a mentally healthy workplace. It discusses the value of workplace mental health champions and the roles one feel they can play in helping nurses at work. The chapter focuses on how some of the internal workings of an organization, such as communication, morale, recruitment and retention, and recognition and reward, help to foster positive workplace mental health. The chapter presents the value of culture, psychological job fit, staff engagement, shared governance, and respect in a workplace. It explores how organizations can motivate nurses to create higher retention and recruitment rates, and describes some health promotion strategies an organization can offer to its nurses to help build and strengthen workplace mental health. The chapter also discusses the value that leaders have in helping to build an organization that has positive mental health.

This chapter helps the reader discuss the risk factors for substance abuse and addiction and to understand the physiology behind an addiction. It focuses on why nurses are at an increased risk for the development of an addiction. The chapter explores the legal, ethical, and professional ramifications of being, working with, or leading a nurse who has an addiction. It presents what a nurse leader and organization can and should do in response to knowing that a nurse has an addiction. The chapter also discusses the dangers of the code of silence, and highlights the adverse outcomes that can potentially occur when a nurse has an addiction. Many different psychosocial factors can increase the susceptibility to becoming addicted to drugs or alcohol. The symptomology of addiction is be categorized as behavioral symptoms, physiological signs and symptoms, social ramifications, and financial consequences, all of which have common underlying threads.

Intervention fidelity, the extent to which an intervention is delivered as intended, is of growing concern in the fields of health, education, and psychology. The recent proliferation of evidence-based interventions challenges researchers and practitioners alike to pay careful attention to fidelity throughout the various stages of an intervention. This chapter explores several facets of intervention fidelity. After the construct is defined, it discusses the current state of fidelity research. Then, it offers strategies for establishing and maintaining fidelity, and remaining challenges within the field are acknowledged. Following that, the chapter explores the complexities of maintaining fidelity in new contexts. It illustrates the procedures used to evaluate fidelity in a rural school district adaptation of an urban evidence-based intervention, INSIGHTS Into Children's Temperament to provide a practical example. The chapter ends with five practical recommendations for establishing and maintaining fidelity of an intervention.

A major strategy for using qualitative data is the use of data to support the development of a concept. Induction is the sacred cow of qualitative inquiry. Concepts are normally identified in qualitative inquiry inductively. The process continues until there are several articles identifying and describing the new category/concept. This chapter examines the ways that qualitative research develops from data to a concept. It presents three methods. The first is identifying the concept within the data, and the concept of compathy was used to illustrate how a concept may be developed from a single project. Second, data were used to develop a concept. The third method was the development of the concept of preserving self as the concept emerged from many descriptive studies over a period of two decades. The level of development of this concept is in the descriptive stage and it moves into Stage II, the abductive phase.

For individuals who face life-threatening or terminal illness, two concepts are used in research to account for the altered affect and behaviors that occur when they emerge from suffering. The first concept is self-transcendence; the second, self-reformulation or the reformulated self. The concept of self-transcendence has a lengthy history in psychology and philosophy. In the course of the past three decades, self-transcendence has emerged as an important scientific concept in nursing theory and research. High self-transcendence has been described in nurses’ experience caring for others and work engagement among nurses in acute care settings. Self-reformulation, also a scientific concept but developed qualitatively, was identified by Carter in her study of long-term survivors of breast cancer patients. Similarly to the concept of transcendence, self-reformulation has been applied in a variety of contexts, from patients suffering chronic illnesses. Exposing confusion and further developing both concepts is what science is all about.